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10 Important Reasons to Keep Exploring Music

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Photo by Pittaya Sroilong
Nowadays it’s a lot easier to explore and listen to new artists, bands and music styles because of Pandora, Spotify, Last.fm and Youtube.

I listened to Last.fm for some time and I really loved it. It made me familiar with a lot of singer song writers I’d never heard before.

I’ve always been curious for new musical styles. I still remember listening to my first Slayer album when I was about twelve.

I must confess it didn’t really strike me at first, nor did it the second and the third time, but I wanted to know why the other guys were digging it so much. Was it just attitude or was there something I did not yet hear or understand? I discovered the more I listened to it, the more I learned how to listen and that’s when the music opened up to me. Eventually I became addicted to the genre.

I bought “Chaos A.D.” from Sepultura and I was in love with it straight away. I loved the dark guitar riffs and the bombastic brazilian drum fills of Igor Cavalera. It was all about rhythm and then I went on to Obituary, Death, Pantera, Metallica and Megadeth. The music became more melodic. It’s funny I started off listening to the most loud album at that time and it got softer along the way.

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How Musicians Can Really Benefit From Meditation

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Photo by Sebastien Wiertz
Meditation has proven it’s usefulness among a lot of great guitar players and songwriters like John McLaughlin, Steve Vai, John Frusciante, Paul McCartney, Sheryl Crow and many others.

Once you’ve experienced the benefits you are more than willing to sit down on the floor for a couple of minutes a day.

Meditation can improve the quality of your life and musicianship in a tremendous way.

But yes I know, the hardest part is to get started everyday. It seems there are always more important things to do than sitting down with your eyes closed doing nothing. Well nothing could be more further from the truth.

Meditation will give you the inspiration and answers you need for all your tasks, projects and hard questions. But it will also make you twice as efficient and effective rather than being just productive. By stepping back your mind will see things a lot more clearly and the good stuff shows up.

I use meditation to find inspiration for writing songs, blog posts, teaching guitar students, life solutions, creating new ideas, happiness and balance, peace of mind, overcoming guitar obstacles and difficulties, finding focus for guitar practice and in the past I’ve used it for stage anxiety and finding answers to what I really want in life.

There are a lot of different ways to practice meditation and there is no wrong or right or just one way to do it. Most of them boil down to the same thing when you focus on the essence and leave out any religious rituals or other traditions.

I use three approaches at different times throughout the day or week:

# BREATHING MEDITATION
# MANTRA MEDITATION
# INSPIRATION MEDITATION
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How to Make Faster Progress On The Guitar

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Photo by mikelao26
I’m always in for finding new ways to make faster progress in different areas on the guitar.

Not so much because I’m in a hurry, but just for the fun of experimenting and see if practicing can be done more efficiently.

If you practice it’s nice to make progress instead of running into the same wall over and over again.

If you are really conscious of your guitar playing you get there much faster than spending a zillion hours of practice without real observation.

Some guitar players feel they get stuck at a certain level, that’s because there is a point where you need to observe and change what you’re doing. That’s when the magic happens.

Let’s take a closer look at the keys to make faster progress:
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8 Steps to Become a Successful Guitar Player + News

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Photo by YouWall

Yes, a beautiful guitar and a great sounding amp will get you fired up. You need songs, melodies, chords, solos, scales, licks, triads, arpeggios, music theory, exercises, skills etc.

But there is more to it than that.

What determines whether you will succeed and become successful as a guitar player is the philosophy and the lifestyle that gives you the insight and motivation to lead you and keep you going into the right direction.

In fact, the latter is even more important than being talented, knowing music theory or playing with descent equipment. Don’t get me wrong having the best of both worlds is a privilege, but these 8 steps are crucial for making it happen.

Let’s get you started:

1 – Name it
Before you can become a successful guitar player you got to know what you want. Do you want to be able to play a particular song really well or do you wanna nail a whole repertoire of 30 songs?

Do you want to become a blues guitar player, a jazz player, a classical guitarist, a singer songwriter, a performer? Do you want to teach, be taught or self taught? Do you want a band, a gig or a record deal? Do you want to be a hell raising fast or melodic lead guitar player or do you prefer to be an awesome rhythm guitar player?

Write it down on a piece of paper. If you’re not sure, then write down what you don’t want and you’ll be close to knowing what you do want. Make a top 3 list of things you want first and then finally choose one thing you want most. Number two and three come later. First focus and what you want the most and start with that.

You have to name it before you can claim it!
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